


Eternal Wind, Eternal Love

by rahelawriter



Series: Working Out the Kinks [4]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gender-Neutral Warrior of Light, Other, POV First Person, Tearjerker, confession of love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 11:52:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8284870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rahelawriter/pseuds/rahelawriter
Summary: The doors of the Crystal Towers were sliding shut for what could be a lifetime, but you refused to give up the person who was locking himself inside.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Source for prompt is right here: https://ff14kink.dreamwidth.org/460.html?thread=77516#cmt77516
> 
> "WoL/G'raha Tia - farewell sex (spoilers for CT storyline)  
> (Anonymous)  
> 2016-04-25 09:56 am (UTC)(link)  
> (I only just finished the quests recently and didn't about know any of it so warning just in case?)
> 
> After the events of World of Darkness, when G'raha resolves to seal himself away with the tower the WoL is fairly upset about possibly never seeing him again and they have one last night together. I can see this as either romantic or casual friend attraction, preferably male miqo'te or very ambiguous WoL!"

“Farewell, my friends. I eagerly await a future born of your courage and the ancients’ wish.”

My eyes brimmed over with tears, prickling painfully as I watched him turn away and walk further into Syrcus Tower. The rest of us: Cid, Biggs, Wedge, Rammbroes, and myself, we watched from the threshold as the colossal, impassable doors-- the ones that troubled Cid for so long and required Unei and Doga to open-- began to slide shut, possibly to never open again, at least not within my lifetime.

And _he_ was trapping himself on the other side of them.

G’raha and I had become close over the past few months, investigating the Allagan ruins scattered across Mor Dhona. What a team we were: the Fellowship of NOAH, discovering the secrets of the Crystal Tower. And admittedly, I fell for him early on; his puckish humor and mannerisms made me laugh, even when I was on the receiving end of his pranks, I couldn’t stay angry with him. His was a sharp wit, a strong mind, and a good-natured heart, small wonder I was so drawn to him. But as time went on, when we discovered more and more of the Tower’s secrets, and more about how he related to them, G’raha began to change. It was subtle; smiling less often, frequently suffering headaches, and perhaps less subtly, growing more and more obsessed with learning the truth about his red eye. The arrival of Unei and Doga and the answers they brought with them had only made his remaining questions stronger. He once confided in me about how it was the source of much difficulty during his childhood, from confusion about why he was the only one of his brothers to possess it, to it being the cause of bullying from his peers. If I’d only known what learning the truth would do to him, and that he would someday have to leave because of it…

The reality of it finally hit me full force: once those doors closed, _I would never see him again_. All those times we stayed up all night together, sharing a cup of coffee in our tent in St. Coinach’s Find working by lantern light, comparing notes and poring over ancient texts only to fall asleep on each other just before dawn, piles of papers still sitting on our laps and our hands smeared with ink. All the times we fought alongside each other to repel the gigas and other monsters attacking the camp, and laughing as we patched each other up afterwards. Watching the sunset over Silvertear Lake from the top of the tallest spire we could find. We could never have any of that again. G’raha would be gone from my life like he was never there. As if absolutely nothing about about him ever mattered beyond being a container for Allagan blood.

Nothing about this was fair. I could feel a blinding rush of rage and grief, and a complete lack of willing to accept this. My teeth clenching, hand tremblings, tears dripping down my face, and my feet started to move of their own accord.

I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.

“ ** _NO!_** ”

Turning off any sense of impulse control in my brain, and ignoring the shouts coming from the others, I charged forward just before the gap between the doors grew too narrow to pass. I heard them slam shut behind me, but at that moment, all I cared about was the man in front of me. Who had turned back to see the source of the clamor and was now more than a little irate to see I had locked myself in here with him.

“You _fool!”_ He bellowed, “What do you think you're doing?!”

I wasn't thinking at all. I sprinted to him, my footsteps echoing through the tower’s grand hall. Finally I threw my arms around him, half-tackling him in a tearful hug, burying my face in his shoulder. “I don't want you to leave!” I cried out, clutching at his shirt, refusing to let go. “I-I’m not letting some stupid ancient Allagan curse take you away. Please, Raha… I love you.”

G’raha stiffened, and he was silent for a long moment, but finally he wrapped his arms around me, and returned my hug. His voice is choked when he speaks again. “You… You must understand… There is no other option if we are to prevent another calamity like the earthquake that destroyed Allag. This is for the preservation of the realm.” He breaks the hug to look at me. “Truly I am sorry; but you of all people should understand… This is the final wish of my ancestors.”

Looking into his eyes, the sorrow in them is genuine. But I hate seeing those inhuman red irises, the bloody hue that shaped his life as soon as it began, that consumed him and everything he was, taking away his right to choose his own destiny, and now it was taking him away from me. Reaching up to cup his cheek, I stroke with my thumb under the eye that used to be a beautiful, playful teal. “I don't care about Allag or the Ancients or anything like that. I care about _you._ You, G’raha Tia, the Student of Baldesion historian and marksman who challenged me to a race to get some silly aethersand in the middle of the most dangerous parts of the Black Shroud only so he could give it back on a whim. The one who was always excited to make new discoveries and venture into the unknown, who decided on the name NOAH all on his own and wouldn't stop complaining when Cid wouldn’t let him go into the Labyrinth with me. Is he still in there somewhere? What is it that _he_ wants…?”

The miqo'te goes silent for several more seconds. He places his own hand over mine and leans into my touch, reflecting on my words. But finally he returns his gaze to me, and in answer to my question, he pulls me in by the shoulders and crushes his lips against mine. I’m shocked for a brief moment, but I return his kiss, fighting back a new wave of tears. His mouth is so soft, his skin so warm, his arms so comforting, and even as he separates from me again, he rests his forehead against mine. “I… I'm still here. And I love you too. Every hour, minute, and second we’ve spent together is time that I will treasure forever. Though the idea of never seeing you again is a knife in my heart, to choose the alternative is unthinkable. I wish it didn’t have to be this way. As much as it hurts, this is more important than what either of us want.”

Every word I want to say dies in my throat. He’s right. Either G’raha puts himself to sleep with the Tower, or all Eorzea would be split apart and decimated. Realizing this, my shoulders sag and I slump forward, his arms the only thing still holding me up. He was resigned to his fate, and I should have been, too; now all my childish stubbornness has done is cause him more pain. It’s then that he runs his fingers through my hair and says, “But… You deserve a better goodbye than what I was trying to give you. If you wish it, then we could spend one last night together, only the two of us.”

I looked back up at the scholar to see if I heard him correctly, and he’s smiling at me. Solely for my sake, G’raha would be willing to put off shutting down the Tower for one more night, just so he could spend it with me…? Of course I couldn’t say no. This time I’m the one who kisses him, and it signals the beginning of our last night together.  
  
I intend to make every second count.


End file.
